This invention relates to improved pasta dough and an improved method of preparing pasta products. More specifically, this invention provides an improved pasta dough which exhibits less resistance during extrusion, more rapid drying, and reduced checking in the final pasta product. The improved pasta dough is prepared by treating the pasta dough with pentosanase enzymes which are essentially free of both proteolytic and amylase activities. The present invention also provides an improved pasta dough in a kit having a hand-held extrusion system which allows a consumer, including children, to prepare the pasta product in the home kitchen.
Pasta is normally prepared by extrusion of a low moisture dough through a die to form the desired shape. Generally, high extrusion head pressures are required due to the high viscosity of the pasta dough. After extrusion, the formed shapes are dried in a process that can take several hours. If not carefully controlled, the pasta can be prone to checking during the drying process.
A number of attempts have been made to provide more workable or machinable dough. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,983 (Mar. 21, 2000) provides a dough-improving or bread-improving composition containing a pyranose oxidase. The pyranose oxidase is reported to exert an oxidizing effect on dough constituents and to improve the strength of gluten structures in the dough and/or baked products and thereby improve the strength of the dough in addition to the rheological and the handling properties of the dough. Other enzymes, such as cellulase, hemicellulase (e.g., pentosanase or xylanase), lipase, oxidase, peroxidase, protease, peptidase, and amylase. can be used in combination with the primary enzyme (i.e., pyranose oxidase) to improve the dough. Pentosanase is reported as being useful for the partial hydrolysis of pentosans when, in turn, increase the extensibility of the dough. Although this patent is mainly directed to dough useful for preparing bread-type products, it is noted in passing that the pyranose oxidase can be used in the preparation of pasta dough.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,982 (Mar. 21, 2000) provides a dough-improving or bread-improving composition containing an L-amino acid oxidase or a benzylamine oxidase to improve gluten strength, stickiness, and rheological properties of the dough as well as the specific volume of the resulting baked goods. The same additional enzymes as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,983 can be used in combination with the primary enzymes (i.e., L-amino acid oxidase or benzylamine oxidase). Although this patent is also mainly directed to dough useful for preparing bread-type products, it is again noted in passing that the L-amino acid oxidase or benzylamine oxidase can be used in the preparation of pasta dough.
Nonetheless, extrusion of pasta products still requires high head extrusion pressures due to the high viscosity of the pasta dough and careful drying of the formed pasta to prevent checking. It would be desirable therefore to provide a more workable or machinable pasta dough that would allow a significant reduction in head extrusion pressure in pasta extruders. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide a pasta dough that allows the production of extruded pasta shapes that are less likely to check during drying. The present invention provides such a pasta dough and a method of preparing such a pasta dough. Indeed, it has surprisingly found that the pasta dough of the present invention has such improved workability that it can be used in a hand-held extrusion system which allows a consumer, including children, to prepare the pasta product in the home kitchen.
The present invention provides an enzymatically treated pasta dough having superior workability and machinability. The enzymatically treated pasta dough has significantly reduced viscosity as compared to a similar pasta dough which has not been enzymatically treated by the process of this invention. The reduced viscosity of the pasta dough allows significantly reduced head pressures and/or significantly higher throughputs in commercial pasta extrusion systems. Additionally, the pasta product obtained using the present enzymatically treated pasta dough is less prone to checking during drying, thereby allowing faster drying times, more even drying, and reduced energy consumption without sacrificing product quality in commercial operations. The textural and organoleptic properties of the cooked pasta prepared using the enzymatically treated pasta dough of this invention is essentially equivalent to a conventional high quality pasta product.
Surprisingly, the enzymatically treated pasta dough of the present invention has sufficient workability that it can be used in a hand-held and hand-operated extrusion system which allows a consumer to prepare the actual pasta product in the home kitchen. Indeed, the enzymatically treated pasta dough can be extruded by a young child using such a hand-held and hand-operated extrusion system. A kit containing such enzymatically treated dough and a hand-held and hand-operated extrusion system is provided. Such a kit allows children to actively participate in meal preparation.
The enzymatically treated dough of this invention is prepared by treating the pasta dough with an enzyme system consisting essentially of one or more pentosanase enzymes which are essentially free of both proteolytic and amylase activities. The enzyme system should not contain enzymes other than such pentosanase enzymes.